"This Year's Girl," the first of a two-part Buffy the Vampire Slayer does a good job of illustrating that perspective from rogue slayer Faith's point of view. Left comatose from a skirmish with Buffy last season, Faith lies dreaming as the
episode opens. Her idyllic thoughts are always interrupted by an ominous and
murderous Buffy.

Of course Faith-as devastating in every way as ever-is bound to wake up and
wreak havoc on Buffy's already tumultuous world. Quickly escaping her hospital
bed, the awakened Faith scores a perfect outfit and sets out first of all to figure out what year it is and ultimately to seek revenge on Buffy.

Faith has to be brought up to speed on a lot of things. She doesn't know the high school's gone or that Angel has his own series, but she's soon eavesdropping and catching up with Buffy's current situation from woes with new boyfriend Riley to headaches with Adam. She also finds a message from her mentor, the departed mayor, who offers a mysterious device for Faith to put to use, though viewers don't discover its powers until the final moments.

"This Year's Girl" is a uniting of sorts, bringing together a part of last season's major story thread and this year's, though Adam and Initiative quickly take a back seat to the Faith assault. It's a little more plot driven than the usual Buffy episode, but there have been plenty of episodes this year that have explored the lives of the characters so viewers aren't slighted with a shift to Faith's viewpoint.

Adam, though offstage is not forgotten. In this installment's most striking scene we get a view of his work, a demon eviscerated Hannibal Lecter style.
The Buffy universe is a richly developed and detailed world. "This Year's Girl"
above all reveals just how well the series' creator and writers maintain the
internal consistency.

The only weakness in this episode's installment is in the dream sequences which
lack a real dreamlike surrealism that might have been fun. I guess Faith's visions have to be similar to Buffy's since they are flip sides of the slayer coin.

read the second part of this review